The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-09-07
RAT-cATCaERs' STORIES.
Tales Called TO Mind by the Vision of
a Rat-Trap and Its Prisoner.

Three gentlemen We're sitting in restau-
rant last night. enjoying a friendly smoke
and quiet glass, when the proprietor of
the establishment came in with trap and
a huge rat, which had been caught therein.
The rat was examined and pronounced a
fine catch. and after the natural joke at the
proprietor's expense about having ''squir
rel" on the bill of fare next morning, the
conversation was resumed. The gentlemen
had been talking about fox hunting, but
they switched off on to rats, and each took
his turn in trying to Guido the Others in rat
stories.
The biggest rats ever saw" said No. /,
''are on the wharveS. | remember used TO
be on the wharves and some Of us fixed up
rat trap of our own. We iixe corn sack
50 the mouth would stand open until we
pulled a string that closed it, We would
bait the trap by putting cheese in the bot
tom OF the sack, and then we would go off
some distance and watch for them. The
rats would come out of their holes and smell
the cheese, ard go into the bag for it, and
when there was good big LOT of them in
there together we would pull the string and
catch them. Frequently we would catch a
seek full at one haul. and we always caught
at least two sacks full day"
What, catch a corn sack full at oncep
exclaimed No 3
well, don't mean so full You couldn't
get another in it, but a-full-you know
what | mean"
ooh, yes" laughed No. =, 81 know what
You mean" Then taking his turn at the
wheel No. ,, who is a sea Captain, said:
''Well, the funniest thing | ever saw in the
way of rats was about a y ear ago. A fell
low came on my vessel and asked if there
were any rats in her | told him yes, plenty,
and he offered to clean them all out He
said il there were not many he would catch
them all for $40, but if there were many he
wanted l0c. a piece. There weren't
very many, so | told him TO go
to work, and what do you think he did? He
brought another fellow with him and sack
of something that looked like salt, but it
wasn't salt. The two of them went to work
and sprinkled this stuff all over the ship.
Then when it was dark the fellow | made
the bargain with made the other fellow
stand behind him and hold the sack open.
Then he got down on his hands and knees
and put something in his mouth and began
to make a low funny kind of noise, and the
rats all began to come right up to him, and
just as fast as they would come up he would
catch them and throw them into the sack
behind him, and in less than two hours there
wasn't rat aboard the vessel"
An ominous silence fell. 1t was begin
ming to grow painful. No. had dropped
his eyes and he seemed afraid to raise them.
No. 3 came to the rescue He laid his
SLOUGH hat on the table and clasped his
hands behind his back. my father had a
niger boy he said in a firm tone that in
dictated confidence, "and our cellar was
filled with rats My father told the boy
that he'd give him &c. for every rat he
caught, so every night the boy would take
piece of cheese in each hand and make
one of the other boys go with him into the
cellar With light. He would
lay fat on his back and
stretch out both arms and open
his hand, letting the cheese lay on top of
them. Then he would make the other boy
take the light away. He would lie there
and wait until the rats came around and
began to nihble at the cheese. Then he
would close both hands suddenly and catch
rat in each, and here he'd come out into
the light holding up rat in each hand and
demanding his dime
No 2 had Strengthened up and was star
ing hard at No. 8. No. | had a sad, far
away look. He and No 9 arose slowly and
moved toward the door, and as their forms
were swallowed up in darkness there was
waited back in pitiful tones, 81 am some
thing of a liar myself"